What is A Link Verb?

These are incomplete sentences. So you do not understand them. You want to know WHAT Mohan took, WHAT the cat killed and WHOM they blamed.

The verbs TOOK and KILLED do not make sense without some words after them.

Here are compelte sentences.

Mohan took my pen.

The cat killed a mouse.

They blamed the boy.

Now the sentences make complete sense.

What did Mohan take? My pen

What did the cat kill? A mouse

Whom did they blame? The boy

My pen is the object of TOOK.

A mouse is the object of KILLED.

The boy is the object of BLAMED.

An object is a noun (or noun-like unit) that tells the persons or thing to which something is done.

You can find the object by putting WHAT or WHOM after the verb.

For example…. Mohan took my pen. The verb is TOOK. Put what after it - TOOK WHAT?

The answer is MY PEN. It is the object.

The verbs TOOK, KILLED and BLAMED in the above sentnces are called transitive verbs.

A transitive verb is one that takes an object.

There are certain verbs which do not have objects. Such verbs are called intrasitve verbs.

Anita came.

The mouse died.

He slept.

You cannot say “come what/whom?”, “died what/whom?” or “slept what?” the verbs CAME, DIED and SLEPT have no objects. They are intranitive verbs.

Note that some verbs can be used either transitively or intransitely.

The driver stopped the train. (Transitive)

The train stopped. (Intransitive)

He rang the bell. (Transitive)

The bell rang loudly. (Intransitive)

The boy broke the morror. (Transitive)

The mirror broke into pieces. (Intransitive)

The above intransitive verbs can form a predicate on their own. But certain verbs cannot form a predicate without the help of additional words.

The girl seems….

Abdul became….

Vijay is…

The predicates of the above word groups are incomplete. The verbs SEEMS, BECAME and IS require the help of other words to complete the sense of the predicates. But they do not require objects as transitive verbs do. Transitive verbs are ACTION VERBS. They tell us what their subject do. The verbs we are talking about at the moment are BEING verbs. They tell us what persons or things are. Yet they need the help of other words to form a predicate.

The girl seems sad.

Abdualb became a soldier.

Vijay is ill.

These additional words SAD, A SOLDIER and ILL are COMPLEMENTS.

The word (or phrase) that completes the predicate of a BEING verb is called THE COMPLEMENT.